Trip to Mars will result in premature aging

#ISS #NASA #marsmission #astronaut #faseb Researchers fear that spaceflight could be associated with premature aging of the immune system as reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 3 February 2015, researchers have claimed. It is a fact that long-term space flight does have detrimental effects on the human body, including muscle and bone loss. And now, with trip to Mars on the horizon, researchers feel that the time has come to chalk out ways to counteract the negative effects on the immune system so that the crew is kept fit and healthy.
Details of the research has been published in the journal Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) – it was conducted by several French institutions including Lorraine University in Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy.
It is understood that the team used a ground-based model called hindlimb unloading (HU) on mice – it simulates some of the effects of spaceflight on the animals. The mice are suspended with the rear legs in the air, while their front legs remain on the ground.
In March of this year, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will carry out a year-long stay aboard the International Space Station to check out how astronauts would cope with such a prolonged stay in space – till now, the ISS crew used to spend a maximum of six months aboard the station before returning to Earth.